Dewey's Letter
by rockerchik777
Summary: One-shot! It's Dewey's birthday, and he writes a very special letter. I sucks at summaries, so just read it and review it too!


-I know I should be working on my other fic, but I got this idea and it's only a one-shot, so I wanted to write it. Just a note: I changed Dewey's age, it never said it in the movie, but I made him older than he looked so that it would go along with the story.-

Dewey Finn was sitting at his kitchen table. It was his birthday, and he was forty-three years old. Ned was working, the kids were at school. The kids would be coming over once they got out of school to celebrate his birthday, and Ned would be too. But right now, he was alone. Completely alone.

Since he had nothing better to do, he decided to write a letter, so he found a pencil and some paper. Dewey got resituated at the table and wondered about who he should write his letter to. He didn't have anything to say to anyone in particular. And seeing as how it was his birthday, he should probably write to someone who had helped him through something, or someone that had always been there for him.

The more Dewey thought about it, the more he realized that no one had ever really done any of those things for him. Except....

He started writing. (a/n the next paragraph onwards is Dewey's letter, just telling you so there's no confusion!)

Dear- Well, what can I call you? You have so many names. You are so many things. You're my savior, you're my refuge, you're my reason for living, you're all those things and more. But I guess I'll call you what everyone else calls you. So let me start over.

Dear Rock n Roll,

It seems pretty stupid to be writing you a letter, since really you aren't going to able to read it, because you aren't real. Well, you are real, just not in this sense, I guess. Well, today, August 12, 2004, is my forty-third birthday. It seems so weird to be getting old.

So I was born in 1961. At that time, there was Elvis and Motown music. But when I was two years old, The Beatles hit the scene. I didn't really know what The Beatles were, since I was only two, but my mom liked them, and she would always play their records on our phonograph. Wow, that sounds weird, saying records and phonograph. Today, it's all CDs and CD players and everything.

But anyways, I guess you could say I grew up on rock music, namely, The Beatles. But one year later, another group hit the scene. They were called The Who. Now you may be wondering how I was able to listen to all these British bands when they hadn't even made a break in America yet, which is where I was living.

Well, my mom and dad split right before I was born. My dad moved to London, and he would send checks and one time he sent a record, one called Meet The Beatles. My mom put it on the phonograph and fell in love with the record. She was only nineteen when she had me, so at that point she was only twenty-one. She sent a letter to my dad telling him to keep sending her British records. And he did.

He sent her every Beatles record until they were available in the United States, and some Rolling Stones and Who records also.

So okay, I was three and I was listening to bands like The Who, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones, plus some Kinks thrown in there to spice it up. Not like I really knew what was happening. My mom told me all about this stuff. She told me that the first word I ever said was 'rock', but that's not true, my first word was 'record'. So already by age three I was a rocking little toddler.

When I started kindergarten I lost interest in the music that I'd grown up on. I was too busy with school. But in second grade, when I was five years old, I started getting into music again. The whole story of my life and music takes too long, though, so I guess I'll just skip to some good parts.

When I was eleven years old I saved up all the money that I could, and bought my first record. It was Sticky Fingers, by The Rolling Stones I must admit, I was probably too young for songs like Bitch and Sister Morphine, but do you think I cared? If you can't guess, the answer is no. Anyways, I'd been looking forward to the release of Sticky Fingers, and I got my mom to drive me to the record store right before school started.

I remember how my eyes widened when I saw that there was a real, working zipper on the album cover! I picked up a brand new, still in the plastic record. I paid for it and for the rest of the day at school I showed it to my awestruck friends. All day I zipped and unzipped the zipper with the utmost care, so I didn't break it. In fact, to this very day, I still have that record, and it's in perfect condition.

I'd been listening to my mom's records, all her Beatles and Who stuff. She had Tommy, and I listened to that. I still remember boasting to my friends that I understood the rock opera completely. They begged me to tell them what it all truly meant, but I would never tell. That's because I had no idea in hell of what it meant either. But that was two years before '71.

1971 was one of the best years of my life. A lot of great albums came out that year, and I bought lots of them with my own money. My favorite record was Sticky Fingers, since it was my first, but my second favorite album from that year was Who's Next by The Who. It's still one of my favorites. It's the definitive Who album, the cream of the crop, and I would brag about how I had it all the time. Come to think about it, I bragged a lot as a kid.

But moving on to 1975, when I was fifteen. The one great thing that happened that year was Tommy-The Movie. My friends and I all went to see it together. We all agreed that The Who kind of sold out, but it was still a cool movie. I mean, any movie with music by The Who in it rocks! And also, I was fifteen and I got to see Ann-Margaret rolling around in a semi-see-through outfit. What fifteen year old guy wouldn't like that?

Once again, in '75, lots of great records came out. But that kind of happens every year.

Moving on to 1978. That year, I was finally a senior in high school. But I had no idea what I wanted to do after I graduated. A couple lucky things happened that year. First, Ned Schneebly transferred and was in almost all my classes. He was like a rock god. Long hair, a total metal head. You could tell that he did serious head banging on the weekends. So I made friends with him and we went and head banged together on the weekends.

I guess he was the one that got me into harder groups, like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. I mean, The Who and The Stones were hard rock, but this was different. Just, I don't know, different. And that was the second lucky thing: Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page was so cool! I had been dreaming of being the next Pete Townshend or the next John Lennon, and this pushed me over the edge. A week after I befriended Ned I started guitar lessons.

I was really frustrated at first that I couldn't play Stairway to Heaven right away, but soon I learned to relax, to just let it be. I got really good, in fact, my guitar teacher declared me to be a prodigy. It wasn't that I could play everything perfectly, it was that I could pick up tunes really quickly. So by the end of senior year I was really great. And after I graduated, me and Ned formed a band. He played bass, I played guitar and sang. But we needed a drummer.

A guy that I knew from school, Richard, could play drums. We asked him to join our band and he did. We called ourselves Maggot Death and we all had long hair and more make up than Alice Cooper and KISS combined. And that's a lot of make up. I was occupied with the band, so I never went to college. It wasn't like I had even wanted to. I think that kind of broke my mom's heart. She wanted me to go to college and be successful. Now that I look back on it, I wish I'd gone to college. But then again, I'm glad I didn't. Look at me now!

But I'll always wonder what my life could have been like. Anyways, Maggot Death rocked. We were only eighteen, still in our prime. A year passed, and we were holding down a regular Saturday night gig at a local club. Nineteen and felling good. It was summer of 1978, and we were so close to landing a record deal. And then Ned came to practice one day with an announcement. He told me and Richard that he was going to college to become a substitute teacher. Obviously, it didn't go down well. We ended up getting in a huge fight. Me and Ned made up, but Maggot Death was over.

It was my first band, and it still holds special memories.

Oh, and how could I forget? My first concert! I was thirteen years old when I went to my first concert. I went with my mom to see The Beatles. They were awesome! They were just so good! I love The Beatles, they're my favorite band! And that concert really changed my life! Nobody knows how much I love The Beatles, they think I'm all hard rock, Led Zeppelin and all that. And I am. But I'm also into the early rock, the stuff that made it possible for Led Zep to rock. Don't mess with The Beatles, cuz I'd have to kick your ass. Well, I shouldn't be telling you that, because you are rock n roll. You are The Beatles. You are Led Zeppelin.

At that concert I'll never forget how mom looked, that look of ecstatic happiness on her face as she screamed for Paul to marry her and as she sang along with all the songs. I'll never forget that I was drinking a Coke and that I ate a hot dog. I'll never forget the T-shirt that I got, the one that's sitting in my closet right now, probably covered in dust. I got it in an adult extra large, so I could always wear it, even when I was old.

My next important date is December 8, 1980. On that day, John Lennon was shot five times and was killed. I remember my mom hearing the news and bursting into tears, while I sat looking at old Beatles and Lennon solo records and letting a few tears drop. It was a devastating moment for me and my mom. A few days later, we went to the vigil held in New York City, which is where we lived, and where I still live. For ten minutes, everyone was silent. Over 10,000 people, all totally silent for ten whole minutes. It was moving. And then we all sang Imagine.

My mom and I had trouble singing it, it was just such an emotional moment. Even to this day, I go to the special vigil every December 8.

During the 80's I became more of a hard rocker. Sure, I still listened to The Beatles and The Who, but I didn't let my friends know that. And although tons of stuff happened to me in that decade, there was nothing that was really important. The next important moment in my life came in 1995.

My mom died of cancer, and I was devastated. She had always been there for me. No, scratch that. She wasn't always there for me, because often times when I was a teenager she didn't understand me. But when she didn't understand me, her record collection did. I would always listen to her albums, all the best albums that she had, and it would make me feel better.

So even though I lost her, I didn't lose all of her. She left me all her records, and I haven't thrown any of them away. I'll keep them forever. Whenever I miss her, I just listen to Can't Buy Me Love. It was her favorite song. I still miss her so much.

After she died, I was feeling down, so I joined a band called No Vacancy. We were good, at least that's what I thought. But they kicked me out after about six years. I guess they couldn't handle greatness. It was right after that that one of the most profound moments of my life happened.

Ned, metal head Ned, had become a substitute and we were roomies. I pretended to be him one day to get some cash and subbed at a school where he kids could rock! We started a band, School of Rock, and we totally rock! We're still together today, in fact, Summer's working on perfecting our contract with Geffen Records.

So I guess that's how you've saved my life from being boring. Thanks for everything, rock n roll. I couldn't have done anything without you. Now I'm going to go get my Beatles concert shirt and put it on, and then I'm going to take a walk. LONG LIVE ROCK!!!

Forever Yours,

Dewey Finn

Dewey got up from the table, leaving the letter there. He went to his closet and searched for a few minutes until he finally found his old shirt. It was in perfect condition. It was dusty, but he wiped all the dust off, slipped off the shirt he had on, and put the other shirt on. Then he wrote a little note to the kids and taped it on the door, because they would be getting there soon and he didn't want them to worry.

He walked down the steps and shoved his hands in his pants pockets. Dewey started walking. He decided to walk a couple blocks and then come back. He didn't want to keep the kids waiting for too long.

A few minutes later, the kids started arriving at Dewey's apartment. They had decided to wait outside the building until everyone was there, and then all come up together. When they had all arrived, they walked up the steps. Summer found the note that Dewey had left and opened the door. She walked over to the kitchen table and set down the cake that she had made for Dewey. When she saw the pages laying on the table, she picked them up and read the letter.

"Guys, look what I found." Everyone looked up and saw Summer clutching the pages. She read it aloud. Everyone was a little shocked about Dewey's obsession with The Beatles, and that they had just invaded something that was very personal to him. Summer set the letter down on the table just as Dewey walked in.

"Happy birthday!" everyone yelled. Dewey smiled and forgot about the letter. Summer slipped it into her pocket very quickly, so that no one saw.

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One month later, Dewey received his issue of Rolling Stone in the mail. He opened it and began by reading the editorials, and then he went on to find an article titled "Confessions of a Rocker". The subtitle was "On the verge band School of Rock's front man Dewey Finn's letter of appreciation to rock n roll". Dewey's mouth was hanging open as he read the letter that he had written.

Summer came over later that day. She told him everything about how she'd found the letter and that all the other People in the band had read it too. And he had to smile, because really, it was a good letter.

-Tell me what you think!!! REVIEW! MICHAEL PHELPS IS HOT!!!-


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